What is the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma and How Do You Make Your Choice

One of the most common questions that many entrepreneurs ask themselves is how they can achieve a good balance between work and life. It’s the sad truth but the entrepreneurial lifestyle comes with its own set of challenges and tradeoffs. Trust me, I know this first-hand. It’s tough to balance both work and home life. I believe I found a good mix that I recently shared in an interview with Ideamensch.com. According to Randi Zuckerberg, an American businesswoman and the sister of none other than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, entrepreneurs go through a certain dilemma.

Being an entrepreneur, there is some harsh truths that will eventually made themselves known.

According to Zuckerberg, one such hard truth is that there are things you need to sacrifice. What are those things that you need to sacrifice? Well, that’s what is called the entrepreneur’s dilemma.

What is the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma?

According to Randi Zuckerberg, there are five things an entrepreneur wants with regards to work-life balance and these are:

Maintaining friendships

Building a great company

Spending time with family

Staying fit

Getting enough sleep

Many of you will agree that all of these are essential to a good work-life balance. However according to Zuckerberg, this becomes a dilemma because you can only pick three of them and drop two. Want to spend quality time with your kids, build your business and get enough sleep? According to the formula, your friendships and physical fitness will fall to the wayside. It’s sad but one can say that it’s the honest truth.

Motivation and inspiration is at the root of most of these issues. Take a few minutes and motivate yourself with the video above.

Experts agree

According to an interview by Storenvy founder Jon Crawford on Founder Dating, you can only pick three from work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends – that is if you want to actually excel and do big things. If you try to include everything in your life, then you will be spreading yourself too thin. You can forget about kicking ass and making it big. Many experts agree entrepreneurial success calls for sacrifices.

Is this hard formula applicable to you?

Zuckerberg’s hard formula is certainly hard and clear. There’s also the fact that it is endorsed by many industry experts. But does this formula apply to other people as well? Is it really impossible to have a healthy balance of all these factors? Many other high-profile entrepreneurs were able to work for 40 hours per week but also able to squeeze in exercise, family, friends and sleep. It’s safe to say that it will depend on the individual and their special circumstances and priorities.